News

This site includes news and reviews for David's books, especially The Eddie Cantor Story.

See the Events page for information about book talks, other programs, and media appearances.

Bettina Berch, author of From Hester Street to Hollywood: The Life and Work of Anzia Yezierska, reviewed The Eddie Cantor Story for the Jewish Book Council's blog, The Prosen People (12/18/2017). From her review: "David Weinstein manages to make the story of Eddie Cantor’s career timely, instructive, and really rather remarkable. . . This reconsideration of the career of Eddie Cantor provides an unexpected look at a pioneer in the art of being publicly Jewish. As the old saying goes, 'Try it, you’ll like it.'” Link here.

On November 19, 2017, Laurence Maslon devoted a full-hour of his excellent Broadway to Main Street series to Eddie Cantor. He kindly mentioned my book in between songs by Cantor, Nina Simone, and Matthew Broderick. Thank you, Laurence. Listen to podcast here or on iTunes.

Trav S.D. reviewed The Eddie Cantor Story on his Travalanche blog, an essential resource for anybody interested in the history of popular entertainment and show business. From his review: "This isn’t a humor book, it’s a biography of a pathbreaking entertainer. And as a source of inspiration at the moment it couldn’t be better timed." Thanks, Mr. S.D. Link here.

Library Journal, 10/1/2017,published a nice review of the book by Herbert E. Shapiro. "This highly recommended book will be of keen interest to readers in fields of Jewish culture and politics." You can find the full review on the Barnes and Noble site.

Nostalgia Digestwill publish an excerpt from The Eddie Cantor Story in an upcoming issue. More information to come.

Advance praise for The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics from Mark Cohen. “The history of the Jewish American community is sometimes reflected in the life of a single individual. David Weinstein makes an excellent case that the singer, comedian, and actor Eddie Cantor was such a person, and this biography of Cantor offers the reader one of the greatest pleasures of nonfiction, which is the joy of finding surprising new knowledge on nearly every page. . . . The Eddie Cantor Story is a wonderful book for anyone interested in twentieth-century popular culture, Jewish history, and the ongoing drama of immigrants becoming Americans.”—Mark Cohen, author of Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman

Advance praise for The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics from Hasia Diner. “The Eddie Cantor story needed to be told, both to those who remember him and to later generations. A story like this deserved to be presented in a deeply researched and engaging narrative to show the convergence of Jewish immigrant life, the rise of America’s urban vernacular culture and the role of Jews in it, set against the realities of global Jewish politics in the age of Nazism and the Holocaust. . . . No mere celebrity biography, The Eddie Cantor Story melds together politics and popular culture.”—Hasia Diner, New York University